THE QUIET HOUR.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13311, 18 July 1936, Page 2

THE QUIET HOUR.

DEVOTIONAL COLUMN. (Published under the auspices of the Pahiatua Ministers’ Association). Fear is, with many of us, a hindrance to religion. Many fear to, consult a doctor about their health, afraid of the truth. Many fear to come near to, to touch, religion and holy things because they think it would interfere with the pleasures they now enjoy—that they would have to give up much of them ; or religion would interfere with their present ways of business and gain, and they wish to make a little more first which they can keep when they become religious and have to cease those doubtful practices. They fear the thought of God and of the Eternal future because they feel it clashes with their way of life, with the principle that rules their life; and •so they would fain keep it at a distance as long as they may and enjoy what they have in peace, long as they can. So these people have a positive dread of the Christian Church with her warnings and her high doctrines and severe demands. They avoid and dislike all clergy as the messengers of the Church. Thev would keep those at a distance. And yet they are not •happy. How can tlieV-fbe when the principle of therr' lives is fear, avoiding ever-threatening truth, shutting the eyes tightly to strong light? Their homes and all their surroundings, all their atmosphere, are constantly disturbed and sourqd by wilfulness and. unrest. They miss sorely the satisfaction and peace that is to be found only in the honest liumblino; of oneself before the truth and the honest embracing ofr ifs duties. •*“I. never could understand how anyone, reading the first three chapters of Genesis with open eyes, could believe that they contained a literal history ; yet they disclose to ns a Gospel.” (Bishop Westcott). The evolutionary theory of religion and ethics is sometimes supposed to contradict the Scriptural doctrine of the Fall. It does nothing of the kind, unless the Scriptural account be literalised. The time of the fall of each individual child from innocence is impossible to locate ; but the fact is assured by universal experience. The time of the fall, too, of mankind may be impossible to locate —whether the race sprang from a single pair or not; but the fact of the fall remains; and it is hard to describe it better than in the beautiful Eastern allegory of the third chapter of Genesis. The Incarnation.—Sir Oliver Lodge, for many years the foremost of English scientists, wrote: A _Divine Helper has actually taken flesh arid dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. “The second man is the Lord from Heaven.” The whole .Christian world dates its history from that momentous epoch, The Incarnation. We are all incarnations, all sons of God, in a sense; but at that epoch a Son of God in the supremest sense took pity on the race, laid aside His Majejsty, made Himself of no reputation, took upon Him the form of a servant, entered into our flesh and lived on the planet as a peasant, a teacher * a reformer, a master. This is said to have literally happened ; and, as a man of science, I am bound to say that, so far as we can understand such an there is nothing in it contrary to accepted knowledge. I am not testifying to it because it is a •conventional truth. I am testifying because I have gradually found that it may be true—because I have gradually become assured of the possibility of such an incarnation. The historied testimony in its favour ik entirely credible. The Christian Churches have hold of a great truth. This is what I want people .to realise distinctly and forcibly {.and without any convention. There must be < close - personal touch between the sinner and the Saviour. See the zeal of Christ lor the consolation, not of the souls in masses, but of e'aeh individual soul. That is a rebuke to our method of trying to save people in crowds. Home life is the proper place for moral discipline. The family on earth is the school of preparation for the life of the family in heaven. There is a . devilish power at work threatening to ruin our home life. Why do we come across so many unhappy homes? Is it. not that God and religion have no place in them?